Hesketh Bank entertained Turton FC for the second week running and were fortunate to come away with a point against a side that played as well as any visiting team has this season at the Centenary Sports Ground.

Manager James Smith was without Richard Burns who was forced to miss his first game of the season through injury. Kevin Cox and Richard Hill were also absent but boss Smith was able to start the very experienced James Connolly alongside Adam Thompson in the centre of defence and move Adam Birkby across to right-back.

Turton began brightly and home keeper Paul Sergeant had to make two smart saves in the first 10 minutes. A minute later and against the run of play Daniel Birkby found some room on the right and his cross was headed home by John Stead to open the scoring.

The visitors continued to have more possession and on three further occasions Sergeant was called upon to keep them out. Adam Birkby was forced to leave the field after 35 minutes through injury and tactics were changed with assistant boss Jamie Johnson coming on to bolster the midfield and defensively they went to a back three. Initially this appeared to have desired effect and the score remained 1-0 at the break.

The second half began with Bank having a little more of the ball and a chance to increase their lead was thwarted by Turton’s keeper who kept skipper Birkby’s effort out on the hour. A minute later he was at the other end of the pitch clearing off his own goal-line with Sergeant well beaten.

Turton continued to pour forward and on 66 minutes they thought they had equalised but the goal was disallowed after the referee consulted with his assistant.

In a rare attack, Stead saw his close-range effort well saved again by the Turton goalkeeper. Shortly after Turton were finally rewarded with Ally Dickson smashing home a left wing low cross from inside the 18-yard box.

Adam Thompson and Connolly were now defending for their lives as the visitors went for the win. A minute from time, Sergeant made another fine save with the help of the upright to keep the scores level. To compound a poor day, Neil Hulme received a second yellow card in added time and was sent off.

In the end Turton will be wondering how they didn’t take all three points and Hesketh Bank missed an opportunity to further close the gap on leaders Lostock St Gerard’s who had no fixture. They are now eight points behind with two games in hand. This weekend they face a difficult task as they travel for a local derby to near neighbours Burscough Richmond which kicks off at 3pm.